Day 331
Sally Beamish: The Caledonian Road
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Ola Rudner
Sally Beamish is of a later generation than the women composers I have been featuring in the last few days. Born in 1956 she will have seen women composers move gradually into the mainstream. In her younger days women composers were still very much the exception but her younger female contemporaries would now I think feel fully integrated into musical life and accepted without question.
The Caledonian Road is a short piece (12 mins) inspired by thoughts of the road to Scotland. It uses material from the St Andrew’s music book - a collection of French cathedral music from the 13th century. It starts very simply with a solo oboe and then gradually builds to a full orchestral sound. The idiom is post-Britten with perhaps a hint of Birtwistle and Messiaen. The bell sounds are nicely judged. Altogether this was a nice piece which I enjoyed listening to even though it wasn’t one of those scores which really leapt of the page.
No comments:
Post a Comment